Clain Jones wins soil fertility award

Clain Jones, soil fertility specialist for Montana State University Extension and associate professor of nutrient management in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences in the MSU College of Agriculture, recently received the Great Plains Soil Fertility Leadership Award from the Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference Planning Committee. The award recognizes timely and innovative soil fertility-related activities that result in increased profitability for Great Plains agriculture. MSU photo by Kelly Gorham.

Work helps farmers' profitability 

Clain Jones, soil fertility specialist for Montana State University Extension and associate professor of nutrient management in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences in the MSU College of Agriculture, recently received the Great Plains Soil Fertility Leadership Award from the Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference Planning Committee.

The award, given at the 2016 Great Plains Soil Fertility Conference, recognizes timely and innovative soil fertility-related activities that result in increased profitability for Great Plains agriculture. Recipients can be an individual or a team and from either the private or public sector. Jones was honored for his work on three Montana projects that all have a farmer-grower participatory-research approach. The projects include addressing nitrate groundwater problems in the Judith Basin area of central Montana, evaluating intensive cropping systems utilizing cover crop management, and studying NH3 nitrogen losses from urea fertilizer through a NH3 volatilization project.

Jones is recognized as an engaging and interactive teacher and excellent team player. He has authored or co-authored 56 Extension articles and received awards of excellence from the American Society of Agronomy for nine documents. He is the long-time chair of the Rocky Mountain Region Certified Crop Advisory Board, a member and part of the education committee of the Montana Agri-Business Association Board and is on the Western Region Nutrient Management Committee.

about the award

Jones was nominated for the soil fertility award by Rick Engel, also an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences.